Seven Months in Piura by Ev Marie Zeeb

I was 19 years old and was just about to finish school and like so many I had little idea what I wanted to do next. I did not want to study immediately and therefore I looked for an alternative. Driven by the stories of my friends and acquaintances who had tried it before, I decided I wanted to move abroad. My plan was to learn something about foreign countries and foreign living conditions. I also wanted to support a social organization, help people who needed help and to support a good cause. After a long search, I found through the help of the German organization “Initiative Überleben” (Initiative to Survive) a contact in the children’s home “Hogar Anita Goulden” in Piura, Peru. I applied as a volunteer and was lucky to get the chance to work there. So, four weeks after finishing school, I packed my bags and started from Stuttgart airport to my Peru “adventure”. After a 16 hour flight and exhausted, I arrived in Piura, looking forward to my time in Peru. Since I had very little information about the house and the inhabitants, I did not know exactly what I had to expect from my new home for the next 7 months. So far I only knew that the children ́s home is situated in Piura, a city in the north-west of Peru, near the sea, and that it is a home for handicapped children with infantile cerebral palsy and other conditions.

During the taxi ride from the airport to my final destination, I was thrilled with the impressions of South America – a completely new world. I also was very excited (despite my tiredness). Of course there were concerns about whether I would be able to communicate well, but I was excited about how many children I would meet, how I could make myself understood, how much the degree of disability would be and how I would be able to cope with it all. For me it was also the first time that I was alone on my own in a completely foreign country, and did not really know what to expect or how I would be received. All my doubts and fears had been entirely in vain. At the Hogar I was greeted warmly and with open arms by both the staff and the children. That was very pleasant. Nevertheless the first hurdles were my limited Spanish skills. After that long flight, I did not immediately understand all the people and all their friendly speeches. But luckily this changed very quickly after a few days because my new friends helped me to understand the new language.

In the children’s home there are 18 handicapped people. Conversation with these children takes place on a completely different level. Due to the fact that some of the children cannot speak, I had to learn very quickly to converse with them through facial expressions and gestures. We played games or jigsaw, painted or tinkered. We chatted, sang and danced together. After the first weeks of acclimatization, the manager of the Hogar assigned me my duties in the daily work ow with the children. My day started at 7:00 am with preparing breakfast for me and the children and ended at 8:00 pm with bringing the children to bed. Since only a few of the children were able to eat on their own, I had to assist them to eat. I further helped the children after bathing, combing and braiding hair, and generally caring for the children. I assisted (and even was allowed to do it sometimes on my own responsibility) in physiotherapy and occupational therapy, including painting and crafting. In addition I had to help with the housekeeping, had to make beds, help with the laundry and also with the cooking.

Sometimes we made excursions with the children by bus. Especially I remember two trips: one to the beach, the other to a plantation. In February we also had the opportunity to travel with the handicapped people to a nearby rehabilitation and physiotherapy centre. There we did movement therapy in the water, and had a lot of fun together. Unfortunately not all children were allowed to enter the swimming pool because of their medical problems. For me it was really impressive how much the physiotherapy helps those children. In these seven months I noticed many changes of the children ́s movement and trained with them learning to crawl, to stand up or to walk smaller distances on their own. I was really surprised by the working conditions the staff of the home has to work with. Perhaps spoiled by the European standard of living, I was also surprised as I saw, for example, how the laundry had to be done every day, much of it by hand. I was able to share the experience, as I had to wash my own laundry by hand and I became aware of what hard work and effort the laundry maid had to perform every single day.

For me it was the occasion to launch an appeal to my family and friends in Germany and to collect money for a washing machine. After all of them had supported my project, I bought in December, together with the hostel management under Senora Fabiola, a washing machine. The donation of my friends was not completely needed for buying the washing machine. Therefore I want to utilize the remaining amount for another idea. As I have mentioned before physiotherapy and especially water therapy helps my handicapped friends a lot to regain at least a little mobility and additionally makes a lot of fun. My plan is to buy some special swimming wear for people with incontinence to allow them to join the water therapy together with the rest of the group. In conclusion, I want to state that the time at the Hogar was probably the best time in my life so far. It left a huge impression on me and I gained experiences that I wouldn’t want to have missed under any circumstances. It is safe to say that not just the staff members, but also especially the children, became my friends. Despite the fact that life seems to be extremely hard – especially compared to our European prosperity – all of them tell their own story. They regard themselves as being together as a large family, a unit. I am proud that they integrated me into their family and that I was received so warmly.

Thank you “Hogar Anita Goulden” for this special time in your community. Thank you for these special seven months in Piura, and thank you for these great moments with every one of your children.